


Hopeless Child

by 13ineedpills13



Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Brotherhood, Child Abuse, Comedy, Depression, Domestic Violence, F/M, Family Drama, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, I Blame Tumblr, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Why Did I Write This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:08:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21745768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/13ineedpills13/pseuds/13ineedpills13
Summary: "You disgust me." said the father.  "I am still wondering if you are actually my child or not, since you cannot have the Goldstein blood in you with that pathetic magic of yours."------I was in the mood to write some stupid angsty shit, but then i felt different stuff too so yeaBtw I havent even played elias' sequel ; u ; i also pulled walter's personality completely from my assI promise walter is not gonna be an emotionless hateful asshole towards his son in the following chapters, im only uploading this now because the app using is completely falling apart because of the number of the total characters (42.932 characters)Here you go
Relationships: Elias Goldstein/Klaus Goldstein, Elias Goldstein/Main Character
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

"You disgust me." said the father. "I am still wondering if you are actually my child or not, since you cannot have the Goldstein blood in you with that pathetic magic of yours." 

There, stand a lonely boy with his eyes fixated on the red and gold carpet beneath his feet. It's not like he could move his body on his own after his father cast a spell on him to prevent him from running away. No one could figure out if he was actually listening or not, since the expression on his face remained unchanged. Come to think of it, how long it had been since he last had an emotion other than pure loneliness and dissapointment in his beautiful, violet eyes? 

"FATHER! How could you say something like that about mother to Elias!? What has gotten into you!?" The eldest brother, Alfonse dared to snap at this father. "Of course Elias bears the Goldstein blood!" 

The young boy, Elias, did not lift his head once during the entire conversation. He was thinking only one thing: "Why?"

Why was his eldest brother protecting him?  
Why was Father like this towards him all the time?  
Why wasn't his older brother, Klaus, defending him this time?  
Why was his father suspecting him of not having his blood?  
Why couldn't he look at his family members in the eyes?  
Why...  
Why were older people so hard to understand? 

He could feel his eyelids getting heavier and heavier by each passing minute. His energy was drained out today, his father made him practice magic starting from 8 AM to 8 PM, with only 8 minute breaks every 4 hours. His father liked to be consistent with numbers, he guessed. But why were numbers so important to his father anyways? Was it because of the feeling of satisfaction that came from being in a complete and consistent line? Numbers were not soldiers though, right? Or were they? Were there any similarities between numbers and soldiers? Was his father seeing Elias as a weak, inexperienced soldier? What should Elias do if that was the case? If he was an inexperienced soldier, what kind of soldiers were his brothers? The room was spinning, round and round, round and round. A crow was screeching, caawk and caaawk! Caawk and caawk! A clock was ticking, tick and tock, tick and tock... Elias felt like the room was getting smaller and smaller the longer he stayed there. It felt good for some reason, he never felt this good for his entire life. Maybe because he was used to it and was thinking about what he was going to do after the scolding. Maybe he just liked the heavy atmosphere, the anger, the wrath, his miserable self... But why? Despite of feeling like this, why was he was getting anxious? Why did he felt like he needed to escape, now? Why did it felt like something terrible was going to happen?*

So many questions.  
So many unanswered questions...

But he didn't raised his head no matter what. He didn't wanted to look at his father's dissapointed eyes. He just stood there untill his father allowed him to move again while breathing in and out to calm himself down. [Little did he know, a year later, when he attacked her mother out of pure anger and pulled the huge ear rings off of her earlobes, the whole family was going to get into a conclusion that Elias, did in fact had some problems and needed to reach out to a child psychiatrist.]

\----------

"So, Klaus..."

"Hm?"

"YOU are telling ME, that Elias was acually a sadistic idiot that enjoyed pulling earrings off of people's earlobes? And he also got hit with a fire extinguisher and a 1.200 pages long encyclopedia by your father, got thrown into a pile of cow poop and got picked on by his classmates in general AND ALSO picked on the butt by an angry flock of geese when one of your cousins decided to bully him?" Liz said and then started mumbling to herself. 

"Wouldn't that leave some marks on his butt? I should ask Yukiya about Elias' butt... I wonder if it still hurts when he sits on it..."

Klaus stopped and thought about that for a moment with an uncomfortable expression. "If that was the case, Luca would've lost part of his right ear already. Also please stop talking about Elias' butt. It's making me feel weird."

"Hearing you say "butt" is probably the greatest thing that has ever happened to me." Liz smiled. She was not the type of the person to use words like this. The heaviest cussword she ever used happened by dropping an f bomb accidently in front of her best friend, June. She overheard her father say that, and thought that it was a cute thing to yell when she was 8 years years old.

"I had a friend that was 3 years older than me, he used to call me "butthead" whenever I did something stupid. He had the most creative insults ever, and was also a bit disgusting. I remember him peeing-"

Klaus cleared his throat rather loudly and then picked his tea cup up."I AM DRINKING TEA RIGHT NOW, MISS HART. I would appreciate if you stopped talking about that friend of yours. Maybe Luca or Elias' roommate might be intrested in them, but I am certainly not."

Liz just smiled and shrugged. "So where's Elias?"

"Oh, be turned himself into the Carbuncle plushie you have on your lap." said fucking Klaus Goldstein as if it was completely a normal thing. 

"WHAT?!" Liz threw the plushie out of fear and shock, but when a puff of smoke appeared and the sound of a young man's coughs came, she quickly realized what she's done and ran up to him, cheking him if he had any bruises on his body. She threw the plushie- I mean **Elias** to a flower pot after all. That must have hurt a lot. 

"You idiot..." He coughed again. "Why woukd you throw a FREAKING PLUSHIE after you learned that it was an actual PERSON?" Elias asked in a snarky tone and then turned to his brother. "Klaus, how did you realised that I was here? I used a magic tool that was specifically designed to left no trace of a person's magic to change my form...?"

Klaus just looked at him behind his glasses. "Don't underestimate my powers, dear little brother." 

Liz patted his Buddy's back, smiling to herself. But she also feelt a bit awkward, since this coughing guy was sitting on his lap up until a moment ago. Who knows, maybe Elias actually liked sitting on his Buddy's lap? Maybe he felt comfortable there? But how was he planning on sneaking out once she put him on her bed and didn't had any plans that included leaving her room? It would be pretty funny if he was caught though, just imagine all of the rumours... 

"The Golden Boy an his Buddy were caught in the girls dormitory! What were they doing?" Or "Perhaps they a couple now?" God! Just imagine Elias' fanclub just puking their anger out on their precious baby's buddy! Liz chuckled at this thought and met with Elias' flustered gaze.

"I guess you like your friend's legs a bit too much Elias."

"W-what are you- What- What are you t..talking about?!" Elias' face was slowly turning into a tomato at this point. Him? His buddy's... No no no, he can't be attracted to them like that. That would be super perverted! He was not Luca! He was not into legs or thighs! Although he did remember the time when he screamed "I LOVE BOOBS! I LOVE THOSE ROUND, SQUISHY, WARM THINGS!" in front of his entire family. He was 10 and was caught watching his childhood crush getting undressed with her sisters. He got slapped a couple of times that night... Alfonse had a video tape of that, and he always reminded Elias about it in every family meeting or party. But that's besides the point! 

"You could have easily turned yourself into a cat and sneaked into my office when I was not here, yes?"

"W..well, I guess so... But!-"

Klaus raised his hand a little bit and hushed him. "Instead, you chose to turn yourself into a thing that Ms. Heart keeps with her at all times. You've also seen her putting things onto her lap when she is concerned about something." And smirked slightly. "You acomplish things when you put your mind into them. But, you do all this unnecessary work in order to get what you want." 

The smirk was quickly vanished from his face though. "That's enough of that. Now begone from my office, I have work to do."

"Yes sir!" Liz was slightly embarrassed by the whole situation of course. But she was looking for an opportunity to escape, so she used it and qucikly gathered her things, opened the door, and left the office quickly without closing it.

"What is wrong with you?" Elias asked. "I just wanted to listen to your conversation for a little bit, I was wondering why you guys were meeting up all the time." He finally laid down on the sofa and looked at his dear, older and wiser brother. "She... I don't want you, you know, meeting her. I don't know why but I feel disgusting whenever you talk to her. It just simply bothers me, brother." 

"Despite of her talking about your butt for 2 minutes and accusing you of being a psychopath, you still fall for her?" Klaus had good laugh at that.

"Yes, despite of stuff like that! If you are going to make fun of me right now, do it!" Elias was stuck between rising up and laying down with his hands formed into tight fists, to the point where his knuckles turned white in front of him.

"Mother is going to be pretty happy about this, she was worried whether or not you were going to get a partner."

"Wait, fall for her? Partner? WAIT NO! It's not like that!" Elias sighed. "It's... really not like that..." When Klaus saw the scared and confused expression on his brother's face, he decided he tortured him enough for today and became serious, he started doing some paperwork and talking with him at the same time. "What do you think about this girl, Elias?"

Elias rose up, pulled his legs to his stomach and wrapped his arms around his knees, he sighed once again. "Whenever I look at her, I just... have this weird urge to hold her. You know, become a decent human being and be nice towards her. But I feel this disgusting pain in my heart whenever I get close to her. It just... hurts up there. Kinda like having a heart attack, or getting stabbed in the chest. So I try to avoid her. There is no way I'll ever cry because of the pain an idiotic country bumpkin caused." Elias ironically wiped his eyes. "You remember Sigurd's 17th birthday party? I wasn't there because I was sick?

"Yeah, that.. idiot partied all night." After that brief pause, Klaus started to think about that day. He was suspecting that one Sigurd's stupid friends brought some weed to the party and they smoked it secretly in Sigurd's bedroom. Sigurd looked and acted like he busted a nut all night after all. 

"Sigurd's girlfriend... She kind of told me that I could never learn how to love or be loved by someone else if I keep 'this' up. But what exactly am I 'keeping up'?" Elias had a confused look on his face. "I thought about it for days. Was I just being aggressive? Or a little too diciplined for everyone's liking? Nobody likes a grumpy person, right? But Miss Ha-..." Elias paused. "Liz... did accepted me without giving a single care about my last name or grumpiness. This sounds really cliche but... This girl... She became my everything in the span of the last 5 months. 

But I don't want to hurt her. I can't control myself, I just say whatever that comes into my my mind first whenever I am angry. I... made her cry a couple of times already and each time, when I came back to my dorm room around the curfew, undress and see my reflection on the mirror, I wonder what kind of being... a monster I've become in the last few years. I just look miserable. If I am the one who exploded at her and if I feel this disgusting, I wonder how she felt when she did nothing that bad to deserve those kind of words..."

Klaus adjusted his glasses. He was listening to his brother carefully, it's been a while since he opened up to him this much and he didn't wanted to miss a single word of it. "So?" he asked. "She still sticks around with you, yes? Isn't that what you want? Why do you care so much about that girl's feelings if all you want to do is to spend some time with her?"

"That's what I wanted at first." Elias sighed. "But now... I feel like I want to spend my whole life with her. I feel like something falls apart inside of me whenever I think about it. The day when she has enough and decides to hate me. Maybe she'll find someone else and marry with her. Have a couple kids or adopt some animals, open up a veterinary... And all of a sudden, she remembers me while she's having her morning coffee. With lots of sugar and milk in it of course. Then, she gets a very bitter expression on her face and when her husband asks what's wrong, she says "Nothing. Just had an unpleasant thought.". 

I don't want it to be like that. I want to change but... I can't. I feel scared. How hard it must be to stop being an "asshole" you may ask? Well, the problem is not just about me acting like a grumpy grandpa that lost all of his kids during a whooping cough outbreak. I can always become a nice person but... I... I'm scared of changing. I kept myself from having heartbreaks and didn't do all thar crazy stuff that teenagers do, which causes them to get their lives ruined later on thanks to my attitude. I had better grades, and my father even praised me for the last 100 points I got in Professor Schuyler's class... 

I'm afraid of changing because of her. I'm afraid of losing control of myself like the other teenagers in this school. I'm afraid to become... one of those cool kids you know? Liz is already popular and those fangirls of mine are getting more and more fanatic over me nowadays. I hate attention, I hate being born as a Goldstein. I just want to live the rest of my life in a tiny, calm cabin in the country side." He closed his eyes and continued to lie down on the sofa. "Oh, how I want to dissappear without a single trace sometimes..."

Klaus got up from his chair and went to the desk filled with tea leaves and a couple tea sets. He felt like using a set that had anemone designs all over anf it and made the first thing that he saw, the linden tea. Then, he put some honey in it and gave it to Elias. "Drink it. It'll help you to relax a bit."

Elias rose up and took the cup in his hands. It was warm, warm as the spring sun. But at the same time, he could feel a certain coldness coming from the cup filled with the sweet, warm beverage. He thanked his brother quietly and took a sip out of the tea. It was delicious, as expected from his brother. He made the best tea in the whole family and rejected to drink any type of other beverage in he family gatherings, unless he made it himself. 

"Now." Klaus said. "If you ever talk about, or even FEEL like dissappearing. again, I will know about it somehow and wipe out your entire existence with my own, bare hands. Never talk about that again. You are my brother, and I will never let you run away from your feelings like the pansy that you are."

Elias yawned while he listened to him. The tea was making him sleepy, and the office was warm. The couch was also comfortable, so it was the perfect time to nap. He needed it, he spent most of his nights just shifting around in his bed after all.

"A pansy eh?" He said. "Guess I am a coward after all..." He put the tea cup aside and put his head on the couch, getting comfortable. 

"I never said you could sleep in here."

"Let me live..." Elias mumbled. He could feels his eyes drifting from side to side out of his control and his vision was getting blury, he had a hard time focusing on his brother's face. He wiped a single tear from his eye, and closed his eyes before the room started to spin around from where he laid down. 

/////////////////

Years passed and the age range for Elias to become a rebellious idiot has already come.

Fucking puberty.

It was his first year as a rebellious teenager (he was 14 years old, also the year that he went to a private school) and he was getting into arguements with everyone, everday.

"What did this bastard son of mine did again, Professor?" Walter was fuming about Elias, once again. He did nothing but cause trouble at his school since the day he stepped into the academy's grounds. 

Elias just sat there. He looked bored and was probably calculating the time when he's finally going to get to his dorm room. His unintrested behiviour and lack of seriousness angered his father, so he slapped the back of Elias' head with a loud "Sit properly, boy!".  
"Don't tell me what to do, old man!" Elias held his head, it did hurt after all. 

The old Professor scoffed and began explaining. "Elias had an arguement with a group of female students today. When we interrogated him, he said the following;" the professor casted a spell and a screen with a golden outline came up. The screen was showing the moment of the interrogation (writer's note: i hate the word "the" now).

Elias was sitting in Klaus' office. His forehad and hands were covered in scratch marks and his uniform was teared up from some places. Also his tie was loosened and his hair was messy. His golden hair was darkened into a brownish colour because of dirt and small pebbles. He clearly looked like he got roughed up a little bit during the fight. He also had purple and res bruises on his cheek. 

Elias' calm but serious voice came from the screen as he talked about what happened. "For short, some stupid fans of mine were bullying a younger male student and I sat the oldest one's hair on fire. But if you want the longer explanation, things went on like this; I was eating lunch in the library, since it was the quietest place I could find in the whole school because, apparently, some idiots does not know what "Can you shut up for at least a second?" means in this school." 

Walter was already cringing to the way his own son was talking and looked at him. Elias was watching the screen with a disrespective smirk on his face. Walter felt humiliated.

"Anyways, I put the sandwhich packaging back into my bag to throw it into the trash later and got up from my seat. I looked through the books, and heard a girls voice and a guy begging for forgiveness for I don't know what reason. So naturally, I found the source of the voice like a dumbass.

There was a boy pushed up and and got his hands tied agganist a bookshelf with his pants... god it was disgusting..." The Elias on the screen sighed and covered his face with one of his hands. It was clear that he did not want to talk about it. "They lowered that boy's pants and were trying to get rid of his underwear. The boy was begging them to stop but those girls were not stopping. They stopped dead in their tracks when they saw me and started stuttering their words though.

I knew that boy, he is from my class and he is really shy." The Elias on the screen was angry now. "Poor guy can't even come up to me and ask for help about a question on his textbook, because those monsters bully him for approaching me! What do you think I was supposed to do at that moment? Roll my eyes, leave the library and let the poor boy get raped when I am a GOLSTEIN? What good is my family name if I can't use it to help people in need!?" 

Elias (the one in the real world) was staring directly at his father, as if he was trying to say something to him. 

The Elias in the screen continued to speak. "So, I took out my wand and used the fire spell that I learned today on the oldest girl in the group. She deserved it, and I do not even feel a tiny bit of remorse for. My. Actions!" He had a furious look on his eyes. "What are you going to do, expell me for protecting my classmate from rape just because the rapists were female? Then so be it, my father is going to disown my stupid ass today anyways!" He sighed, once again.

"The other girls screamed and attacked me, you can see the result of that pretty well. 

I wasn't going to have none of that, so I just ran away and took the boy with me after grabbing his pants on the way. We hid in the supply room together and I let him dress up after untying him as I was checking if anybody was on the way to get us.  
After I made sure that we were safe, I made the boy sat down with me and he confessed to me about what happened.

Apparently, those girls were gonna take photos of him after they were done with him and then hang it to a wall at the local gay strip club downtown with his contact information under it. I am not going to let these kinds of people to walk around the school freely, since my dear fucking brothers, proffesors and the headmaster aren't doing shit about it. That is all I am going to say."

The screen disappeared after those final words. Klaus didn't cared what his brother think about him, but it was true that he heard Elias mention bullying a couple of times. On the other hand, Elias was now watching his father, wondering what he has to say about all of this.

"The girls are expelled from the school for obvious reasons, but the families want Elias to pay for the girl's, who had her hair lit on fire, treatment costs. Or they are threatening to sue the entire Goldstein family." The younger Professor explained.

"I already sent the god damn money, now tell them to shut up." Elias hissed from his seat. "Language, Elias. Don't speak like a street punk. I already heard enough of your disrespectful mannerisms today." Klaus said and walked towards the door. "Where is the headmaster?"

The older Professor looked at his watch and said; "He is away for work purposes. He will be back around 11 PM today. Can you close the door behind you if you are going out?"

"Of course." Klaus said and closed the door after.

"What should we do about Elias, Mr. Goldstein? We are at a loss here." Young proffesor looked hopeless and sad. 

Walter looked into Elias' eyes. Those eyes... had no ill intentions inside of them. But still managed to look prideful and would look down at you all the time. Elias was just like a feral cat,and Walter was the reason for it. He gave Elias a shitty childhood, and he was guilty for that. But what if he actually killed that girl? What if the girl had a brain damage because of the fire? Elias didn't care about that. Or screw the girl, did Elias even stopped once and thought that his actions would effect Walter's influence. Those families were going to make false rumours about him and his wife now. They were going to be shunned, once again. 

*'Ever since his birth, Elias only brought misfortune and eternal suffering to his family.'* That's what Walter thought. *"Do I really want this boy as a part of my family?'* 

Walter didn't approved the only thing Elias cared about in this whole situation; The victim was safe and sound, and was now taking help from a therapist, thanks to the money that Elias stole from his father's pockets at the last thanksgiving party his father had. 

So many sacrifices for a mere boy that is not even thankful for them.

Walter couldn't fathom that.

"I am going to lock the magic power inside of him for a while so that he can't use it for a few months. I think magic is a pretty important thing to him if he likes to use it to harm other living beings.

"W... Wait what? WHAT DO YOU MEAN "FOR A FEW MONTHS"!? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO STAY HERE IF DON'T HAVE MY MAGIC!? All I did was protecting him and giving that idiot what she deserved!"

"You are simply not going to stay here. You are coming back with me to the mansion.

"No way in hell I am going to do that! I would rather take a bullet, thank you!" Elias continued on with his loud protests but he had to accept his fate anyhow. 

\--------

"Father, why did you punish Elias? All he did was protecting the poor boy. Also where is mother?" Alfonse protested when they arrived at their home. Elias was sent to his room and his punishment of 3 months have finally started.

Walter didn't look up from the newspaper he was reading. "Your mother is with Elias right now. As for your second question; Elias doesn't know that every action has a consequence in this world. Even if he did something good acording to the definition of "justice" inside his mind, this doesn't mean that this thing should go without any consequences. He did almost killed that girl after all.

"Don't..." Alfonse furrowed his brows and tightened his fists.

"Speak up, Alfonse"

"Don't give me that excuse, father! You yourself killed hundreds for people because you wanted to protect your family! What's the difference!?"

"Unlike the victim in Elias' situation, my family actually matters to me! Elias just wanted to play the hero of the day card for a while!"

"What are you even saying!? The fucking boy saved his classmate from a very morbid fate! What part of that is "playing the hero of the day card"!?"

"Alfonse, you are a grown up now. You have to understand how justice works! Elias almost killed a young woman! The punishment I gave him isn't even that bad! What are you so worked up for!?"

"You don't care about that girl Father! You care about your image! Do you think I didn't noticed the humiliation in your eyes!? I know you've been considering disowning Elias for a while now! You have to give his magic back to him!"

"ENOUGH!!" Walter screamed in pure anger.

Alfonse got more and more nervous, but he quietef down. It was a bad idea to call out his father on that... 

"If you say one more word about that boy and tell me what to do again, there will he serious consequences Alfonse! I am not going to just sit here and get lectured by you!" Walter was a man, cursed and blinded by his problematic pride. There was no going back on his words now...

Little did he know, Elias was actually watching the whole thing go down from the door way with a small present in his hands.

Today was his Father's birthday.

His mother suggested to give a present to him to lighten up the atmosphere in the mantion little bit. "F...Father." Elias stuttered a bit and walked towards him. He never saw his father this angry before. He was lowkey ~~highkey~~ scared of even facing his father now.

"What do you want?" Walter was getting tired of seeing those eyes that looked just like his. "You're not even ashamed of showing your face to me even at this point!? Some child you are! When I was in your age, my father would have threatened to sell me to a bunch of child molesters if I acted like a little shit, which is exactly what you are doing nowadays!" Alfonse couldn't even react to those words. He just stood there.

"Um... Sorry... I guess..." Elias showed the small box to his father. "I brought you a small present. Happy birthday..." Elias looked at a different way. "Sorry for causing so much trouble to you... I hope you like my present."

Walter said nothing and opened up the present. It was a small drawing with a packet of hand-made chocolates and a pocketwatch with the letter G and W on it. The drawing had a realistic portrait of Walter Goldstein in his full glory, well, besides from being on a paper filled with black fingerpints (thanks to the black pencils), everything seemed nice. However...

He noticed a small drawing inside of the box. It was a small drawing of him and Elias. Elias was a baby and walter was holding him. It was made with a crayon, and looked pretty ugly in general. Elias was probably searching for some stuff in his closet, found this drawing and decided to gift it to his father as a cute gift. 

Walter remembered the old days and memories he had with his son. 

Elias was so free back then... His wings were small, but they looked like they could fly across a whole ocean without any effort. But Walter tore those wings off of Elias and... made him his own prisoner. Walter never liked to think about the old days. It just slowed him down. He felt himself getring weaker and weaker in front of his youngest child. No! No, he shouldn't do that! He shouldn't allow this child to effect him like this! Or he wil get weak again, just like his childhood days... He didn't wanted to look at his own father's dissapointed eyes again. He has to put a stop to this now!"

Suddenly, a loud slapping and tumbling voice filled the mansion, followed by a glass breaking noise.

"..Fat...her..." Elias trembled violently as he held his own cheek. He fell on top of a small and thin coffee table, breaking the champagne glasses on the impact. The glass shards were sticking into his hands and causing his little, pinkish hands to bleed. His whole face went white. Alfonse quickly got out of the room and searched for his mother and younger brother. They needed to see this to truly understand how terrible the relationship had become.

There were small, threading needles picking at Elias' tiny heart, making him bleed inside. He was angry, but looking at his father's face in shock and fear was all he could do. 

"...Elias. From the moment you were born, you slowed everyone down. Do you realize how more twisted my image becomes everday, because of you?"

"The... the only thing you care about is that... image of yours anyway." Elias was trembling and was scared to talk, he could get kicked in the face this time, who knows? He had the courage to look at his father like he was about to murder him though.

"Quiet down boy. You don't want your last words in this house to be those." Walter didn't move an inch and crossed his arms. "All you do is to humiliate me in front of everybody. Your grandfather calls me all the time to ask about you, he wonders when you are going to get out of my house. He says the day you are forever gone from this family will be the dau that everything goes back to normal."

"I don't handle with these procedures." Walter starts walking around the room, stroking his short beard at the same time. "Your grandfather does. And if he wants you away from this family, then I have no choice but to bow down to him."

Oh god...

Elias, I don't see you..."

Oh god, no!

"-as a member..."

Please father! Please have some hope on me! I-

"-of this family anymore."

...

And that's it. Everything was over for Elias now.

With no magic and no family, his chances of surviving was really low now. Elias tightened his fists, causing more blood to spill out from his left hand. 

"Fine..." Eliad got up. "Fine... FINE! IF I CAN'T EVEN USE MY CURSED FAMILY NAME TO HELP PEOPLE, THEN I DON'T WANT IT! I have no reason to stay here now! Thank you for nothing, father!" Elias screamed and ran away, blood still gushing from his left hand and dirtying up the carpet.

Walter looked at the blood stains on the carpet and sighed. Those stains were going to be a pain in the bum to clean now...

\--------

" That night, Elias packed his bags secretly and ran away from his home. He went to the downtown, a 20 kilometers (13.1 miles) distance, by walking in 3 and a half hours. He was tired and felt hot. It was a hot, summer night after all. There were various cars that stopped him and asked him what he was doing all alone in the downtown at 2 AM, but he just made up an excuse and walked away. Then, he found a couple friendly stray cats behind the trees and laid down between them after giving them food. He didn't need the blanket he'd bringed with him since it was so hot, but he did put it on the ground and laid down on top of it. Plus the cats were happy with the change too, so it was a win-win.

He woke up 3 hours later. The sun was rising slowly and there were not many people around yet. So it was the perfect time for him to eat and continue walking. He went to a small store and bought lots of food with some of the money he saved. He ate some of the food and drank the milk the nice shopkeeper gave him. Then, he thanked the shopkeeper and left. He was full and energetic again. 

He started walking with his bag whilist muttering a song to himself and entered a forest with a thin path. His grandfather from his mother's side thought him this song when he was little. "This song is about brave and great soldiers." His grandfather said. "They tried to spread christianity all over the world." However Elias didn't gave a single shit about history part of the song, he just liked the melody.

"Die Eisenfaust am Lanzenschaft,  
Die Zügel in der Linken,  
So sprengt des Reiches Ritterschaft,  
Und ihre Schwerter blinken.  
Heja, heja, heja! Heja,  
Und ihre Schwerter blinken.  
Heja, heja, heja! Heja,  
Und ihre Schwert-" 

"Who's there? Gregooooor, is that youuuu? Why are you singing in german?"

"I'm not Gregor. And I am German. That's why I sing in German. I am definetly not Gregor Samsa since I'm not a cockroach, well, maybe I am one in my father's eyes but whatever. I'm Elias. Not Gregor! Not Gregor Samsa!" Elias started babbling to himself out of fear. What if that person recognizes him and tries to send him back to his family? I mean, the voice sounded like a little girl's voice but...

"Elias? Who are you?" A little girl peaked at him behind a huge tree. She was close to Elias in height, but she had a much smaller figure then Elias. She was wearing a pink dress and her brown hair was tied into pig tails with light pink ribbons. Her eyes were in a beautiful Fushia colour. Her brown boots made a "clink" sound whenever she walked.

"Are you my dad's friend's son? My dad has a rich friend and he looks just like you..."

"Are you talking about Walter Goldstein?"

"Oh yep! That man! He is really tall and handsome! I talked to his dog 2 days ago! His dog was a really nice fellow! Too bad it got mad at me though..."

"He is... well, was my dad. He doesn't want me in the family anymore."

"Why?"

Elias told the girl the whole story. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he got angry, and sometimes he laughed. It was nice to get s few things off of his chest.

"Forgive me for my rudeness miss, but what is your name?"

"My name? Well, my dad was going to name me Elizabeth but my mom said she was way too lazy to call me that. So They decided to name me Liz. You can call me Lizzy though!" The girl smiled brightly.

"How old are you..." Elias grinned at the girl's childishness.

"Don't laugh and I'm 13! You are a year older than me right? That makes you 14. Freaking teenager..." Liz pouted.

"I guess, I lit a girl's hair on fire after all."

"The girl deserved it though." Liz held Elias' hand. "I'm sorry for what's happened to you... But I can make you feel a bit better! Do you want to come with me to my dad's house? I made some cookies today."

"Is... is your father at home now?" Elias was skeptical. I mean, what kind of person would go to a strangers house without anything he could defense himself with?

'That damn old man...' Elias thought. 'I could walk around more freely if I had my magic with me...' 

"He isn't, he is going over to your house now."

"WHAT!? Oh god they are gonna realize that I'm gone... We need to go now! Which direction is your house!?" Elias squeezed the girl's hand and started running to a random direction. "I-It's in the opposite direction, Elly!"

"WHAT KIND OF NICKNAME IS ELLY!?"

\-----

"The children were really tired now, Liz was on her knees, panting. "It... it hurts to breathe now... thanks..."

Elias was not really different eighter. He was sitting down in front of the door. "N...no problem... at least... we are safe now... right?"

"Until my dad comes home, yeah we are safe..." Liz took a deep breathe and got up. "Let's just get inside. Your hair is all dirty and you need to change your clothes. I can make some clothes for you."

"Make clothes?"

"I know how to sew, I can turn one of my dad's pants and shirts to a nice outfit for you!" She smiled, full of herself. "It was not nice of you to come over here with those fancy clothes, what if you got in trouble?"

"I mean... you do have a point but I don't have commoner clothes... All of my shirts have some fanct design on them. Or buttons made out of gold..."

Liz opened the door and shot Elias a look. "Well, welcome to the commoner life, Mr. Elly. Get inside, hurry!"

Elias got inside. It was a cozy cottage with two floors. There were various books, Elias assumed those were her father's. There were also kitchen utsensils on the table, since the kitchen and the living room was fused together. The table was covered in flour, and there were some cookie dough pieces on the ground too. Something happened in here, that's for sure... There were two couches, and some magic tools lying around. A completely melted candle was giving off a burnt smell all around the room. The burnt smell was nothing next to the beautiful and delicious smell of chocolate chip cookies in the house though. There was also black tea and milk in the house too. The windows were shut, but Liz opened them to get some fresh, cold air. It was a bit cold today, which was what everyone was praying for. It semed like there were three more rooms upstairs too. One was probably his father's room, and the other one was... Her room. Elias blushed a bit when he imagined the girl's room. The last one could be the guest room, he couldn't figure that one out.

This house was... warm and welcoming. The mansion was nothing compared to this place. This place actuallt felt like a home instead of a house

"It looks like it's gonna rain soon." Liz commented. "Sorry, I made a mess out of everywhere while trying to make some cookies for my dad. I didn't sleep last night..."

"You don't look tired though." Elias kneeled down and took the cookie dough pieces off of the ground, then threw them into the trash.

"Well, I'm used to it. I help my mother with laundry and other chores sometimes. I go to school without getting a blink of sleep, sometimes..."

"It's the middle of the term though, why are you away from your home?" Elias pulled a chair and sat down as liz prepared some tea and picked out some chocolate chip cookies from the oven.

"I was expelled... That's why my father took me here with him. He was planning on giving me to your family for me to practice my magic safer."

"You were expelled? Why though? You are such a... tender person." Elias was terrible at giving compliments but seeing how sad Liz was, he wanted to do something about it even if it was something small. He took a bite out of the cookie and... oh, was he in heaven? Did he finally die and went to heaven with the perfect chocolate chip cookies he'd always craved? "My god... these are... not bad as I thought..."

"HEY! What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Considering your clumsiness, I thought the cookies were going to be burnt or underbaked but these are not bad." Elias quickly lied and changed the subject. "As I said, you are not a bad person if you took a random boy like me to your house and gave him food. Why were you expelled?"

"I... Well, the people at my town thinks thst magic is a dangerous thing and killed many people because of it. My teachers and the other students found me casting a healing spell for an injured cat, and then they expelled me. The kids started to bully me so my dad contacted your dad. Your dad listened to the situation and agreed to take me to his home and teach me magic until I am an adult, since my dad struggles with anger management issues and my mom... well... she died 6 days ago... Your dad told my dad that he couldn't raise me when he had his own issues..." Liz wiped her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, I asked too much..." Elias could feel the girl's loneliness and lack of confidence in herself. If he didn't decided to be a little shit and ran away from his home, he could have never learned this. 'I wonder why my father never mentioned this to us? Alfonse and my mom knows about it for sure but... well whatever.'

"I... I would be really sad there if I left my dad all alone... Even if he hits me and pulls my hair sometimes, he is still my dad. Even if he screams at me and tells me that it was my fault that mom died, I still love him."

Elias thought about his father when he heard those words. His father and Liz's father were similar to each other. Maybe that was why they were always there for each other. Well, the deed was already done. He was not a member of the family anymore. So he couldn't really go back to his house now. "You don't want to leave your father alone hm..." Elias wished he had someone like that in his life too. He shook his head to tried to get rid of that thought.

"So... You are going to stay here for a really long time?" Elias asked.

"I think so. My dad says that your father is going to act like a teacher to me and my room will be like a dorm room, so I shouldn't be getting stupid ideas. I don't know what he means by that though..." 

"He's probably scared that my own father will be a better father figure to you than him. He doesn't want you to call him "dad" or see any of our.... well, more like the The Goldstein Family's members as your own family members. Kinda like jealousy." Elias took a sip from his tea. "You'll see how it goes." 'You can send me a magic notes or letters if something troubles you. I'll be... I'll find a way to respond to you, somehow.'

"I'll be going over to your house tomorrow. Then I'll say goodbye to my dad..." Liz truly looked sad. "I'm not happy with this at all. I won't have anyone to call as "dad" for years after he leabes that house." She smiled sadly. "Did you know that my mom and dad had an arranged marrige when my mom was 16? My dad was 21 around that time and their parents forced them. They never loved each other but they loved me. However, they fought a lot. Sometimes I could hear the glass shattering or my mom crying downstairs in her bed."

Elias wondered how many families were like this in the world. How many innocent children were becoming the victim of domestic abuse everyday. "Why didn't they have a divorce if their marrige was going this poorly?"

"My town doesn't approve of divorces. So they couldn't do that. And they both wanted the custody of me and the house, so yeah..." Liz was looking at the half-empty tea cup on her hands. The tea had a beautiful reddish colour and a bitter smell and taste. This tea was her mother's favorite tea too. She loved it for some reason but Liz never understood why. She took a sip again. The aroma danced around in her tongue and left a bitter, warm taste in the back of her throat. She didn't like it that much, but this tea made her feel closer to her mother. Just like her mother said; 'One who loves roses should endure it's thorns.'

"...Are you okay?" Elias was curious as to what the girl was thinking. Liz was really quiet, not the bubbly girl he met 30 minutes ago.

Anyway. Where are you going to stay after this? You don't have anywhere to go, right?"

"I'll travel to other cities and a find a job for myself. There is no way I am going back to that place again. It's also not that hard to find a job as a 14 year old in these times..." Elias was was unsure about what he was going to do next. He just frowned and laid back on his chair.

"If only we met a couple years earlier..." Elias muttered to himself.

\---- 

Wouldn't that be nice if that actuallt happened?


	2. 1st Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Elias has an existential crisis, gets injured and spends some quality time with his brother but then gets jealous of Klaus.

"Why was I born as a Goldstein, Klaus?" Elias put a grape in his mouth and watched the students in the courtyard on the couch in the Prefect's office. 

The students seemed happy and normal always, except for 3 girl with different coloured hair from one another. They seemed angry at their friends for a second, but then laughed and took a ball in their hands. Elias assumed they were going to play volleyball with it or something. He've heard about those girls, they were in his class. Apparently they broke a girl's hand "accidently" when one of them threw the ball with a little too much force. Elias knew the other girl as well, she was his buddy after all. Elias smiled to himself, those idiot fans of his definetly hated his buddy.

"You've gotten into philosophy nowadays?" Klaus adjusted his glasses and started at his brother. He was finaly finished with his paperwork

"Kind of." Elias popped another grape into his mouth another grape. "Are you done with your work?"

"I am." Klaus put his stuff away and made a cup of tea for himself, and immedietly relaxed after taking one sip. He leaned down on his chair and turned to his brother. "What did you wanted to talk to me about? I'm guessing you have way too much free time on your hands if you are willing to sit down and eat my fruits in my office for an hour."

"I wanted to eat something healthy for once. I've been living off of caffeine this past week."

"You DARED to put that DISGUSTING THING in your mouth!?" Klaus felt nauseous, he DESPISED coffee. He always gave his baby brother a good spanking whenever he wanted to have coffee as a kid. 

"It was my test week Klaus, I pulled 4 all nighters in a row, studying for my tests." 

Well, that was lie. Elias spent those 4 nights crying himself to sleep because of the never ending pain in his chest. Yukiya eventually got fed up and slept on the balcony. He couldn't sleep while hearing his best friend moaning with shaky breaths in pain. 

"Are you perhaps an idiot?" Klaus asked coldly. "You need proper sleep before a test. Or you'll never get good grades. This explains why you got an A-'s and B+'s on your last tests..."

"I got a B+ only because a student cheated from my test sheet and Proffesor Schuyler caught him, then gave me a B+ because "I should have been more careful and hid my sheet when I was done with it and wait until the bell had rung."

"And he was right about that."

"I never said that he was wrong."

"Regardless of what happened, your grades are affecting your buddy too. You of all people should have know th-"

"Can we stop talking about my grades for once?!" Elias scoffed and got tense all of a sudden when Klaus mentioned his buddy. But the anger in his eyes quickly turned into fear and he averted his eyes and bowed quietly. "Sorry about that... I don't know what came over me."

"..." Klaus fell silent and looked at his brother dead in the eye. He was expecting the reason of Elias' tiny outburst as an answer. "Speak up."

"It's... Forget it. I don't want to talk about it."

"Elias, you are not going to leave until you tell me what happened to you. It is my duty as both a prefect and a brother to help you." 

"I don't want to, Klaus. I really don't."

Klaus sighed. "...Fine. But if I see you in a bad mood this week again, I am not going to let you go this time."

Elias left the room, forgetting what he was going to inform his brother in the first place. He covered his face with his hands and sighed deeply. 

"What am I doing..."

\---

"Forgive me for this please.  
I love you with all my heart, my baby brother." Klaus braced himself and casted a spell on the the small lock on Elias' diary, opening it with no problem. 

"I have to invade your privacy for a little bit to understand you better." 

Klaus turned on the first page. It was written at the beggning of this year.

"New year, same stuff." Elias' irritated voice rang in Klaus's ears. "Some students invited me to a christmas Party. I told them no, but they insisted and when I yelled at them for not taking "No" as an answer. In the end, I became the butthole again and they never talked to me after that." Elias' paragprahs were short and to the point, and lacked any sorts of emotion in them. 'Even in his journal, he writes like a proffesor that is giving a lecture on algebra.' Klaus thought.

The next paragraph was strange though. "How am I supposed to tell then that I feel bad whenever I see people with their family and friends on Christmas? I don't even visit my family if Klaus doesn't threaten me with something in return. Or just kidnap me from my dorm room and put me inside of a horse carrige... God that guy is annoying. Was the last punch in his face not enough for him to leave me alone?"

Klaus just grinned and held his cheek. That punch actually hurt and left a small, bearly visible scar on his cheek. Elias was wearing a ring when he punched Klaus after all.

But this was a serious concern for Klaus. If Elias still feels that way, they were screwed.

''''''''''

Elias made an angry "Offfff!" sound and sat down, took out his ink and pen, and started to flip the pen between his fingers and try to remember good memories about his childhood. Proffessor Schuyler annouced that they had to write a paper about their home lives and the most striking memory that stuck in them with their parents and male a presentation with magic after that, somehow keeping a straight face while saying all of this. "The İnternational Parents Day" was coming up or whatever.

Normally, he would have just made up something and give it to his teachers. Like "My dad used to pick me up after school, we had lots of fun together!" or "My mother hugged me and helped me whenever I felt scared and sad." But this time, his brother was collecting the papers and.... He knew he can't make anything up or else it would be really awkward.

All of a sudden, he heard a piano being played somewhere. It was so close, yet so far away. He looked around in suspicion and assumed it was just coming from the magic radio his brother had in his office. So he didn't mind it. Besides... Something about the tune made him remember the cold, winter days when he was coming back from school with his scarf sloppily wrapped around his neck, his fingers and cheeks numb from the cold. He would sometimes stay for a few more hours at school for extra classes, and by the time he got out of the school, the sun would've started to set with it's full glory. 

The flickering street lamps that were giving off an orange-ish colour, the sound of snow being crushed under hid feet, him thinking about what he was going to have for dinner and what time he should sleep in, the excitement of talking to his brother about that idiot Stacy that confessed her love to him... Those days were soothing. Full of innocence. Times were simpler and happier back then.

Elias began to write with these thoughts inside of the complex head of his.

" I was around 12 years old back then. I was in 7th grade and it was my birthday. I fell asleep at the library, we were in one of our houses up in the vast mountains for vacation, and it was still snowing. 

I would wake up if the head butler told me to get up and get ready for dinner, but he didn't. So I missed the dinner and had to sleep with an empty stomach because there was no more food left for me from the dinner. And the cooks were already in their chambers.

Turns out, my father forgot that I was in the house and didn't say anything about me to the butler. So he had no idea that I was even there. The same thing happened for a few more nights and my brother got mad in the end, and forced me to sit down with the whole family and eat. The dinner wasn't even good, they combined all of the foods that I absolutely detest to this day. Rest of the family enjoyed the dinner very much though.

For some reason, this moment has stuck with me. I always remember it whenever something irritating happens and I am still mad at my father about that, although he probably forgot it already."

.....  
This paper got way too personal.

"But how am I supposed to write a paper that's not personal if I am writing about something PERSONAL?" Elias put his pen down and then rubbed his temples with his pointer and middle fingers. "I hate this..."

"I really hate this..."

"""""  
Klaus turned the other page and continued on reading his brother's diary. This part was written during summer, around August.

"I know consistency should be important to me as a Goldstein, but honestly I don't even have enough time to scratch my head, let alone write to this journal every night or weekend. Anyways. I am writing to this notebook again because I need to get some things off of my chest.

I am an 18 year-old boy now. The year when I become an adult and take desicions for myself, the age when my father married and had his first child, the age when Klaus was finally stopped from being sent to church regularly and got drunk in front my parents jus for the purpose of annoying them, the age when Alfonse was... whatever, also the age when my mother ran away from her home to marry with my father.

How about me?

I am still "That quiet church choir kid that tried to start a gang but accidenly turned it into a book club", definition made by Luca. My family were much more "cooler" than me when they were in my age, that's for sure. I don't even have any friends other than Yukiya. (And no, I don't consider that country bumpkin or Luca as my friend).

I don't blame anyone for not wanting to be my friend though. I know I am not the type of an ideal and supportive friend. I still wonder why Yukiya chooses to hang out with me. And my brother of course... Well, he is much worse than me, I wonder how does he have that many people around him. There is a whole new world that I have absulutely no idea about outside. However, I just keep myself locked in the same places everday. 

The same library, the same classrooms, the same courtyard, the same offices, the same... Life.  
The same life everyday.  
I'm sick of it.  
I'm so sick of everything. I feel like a hopeless, suffering child.

Compared to my brothers I am nothing but a... I am just a dissapointment, a curse to my family. A disgrace to my ancestors. 

That's what my father always said to me.   
I wonder, would he shed a few tears if I am not around anymore?

This is going to sound weird but... I want to end it. My life, I mean. I've been thinking about it for a really long time now. Ever since I was a child. I'm tired od living up to people's expectations.I need to get away from this hell hole. I don't know where I will go, but I have to. 

Then why am I not doing it? Becaue I am too much of a coward to do something so daring like that.

My arms are getting tired... I think I'm going to rest now."

And that's where the second writing ended.

It would be an underestimation to say that Klaus was panicked. He is PANICKED. He needed to alarm everyone right now, and find Elias. It's only been a few weeks ever since from the last journal. It wasn't that late to help Elias-

The door abruptly opened and Klaus dropped the diary out of panic. He looked up at the doorway in anger but when he saw the panicked face of Yukiya, he immedietly got the journal and put it inside of hid bag, then turned around and looked at him.

Yukiya was out of breath. "It... Prefect... I... Elias... He is injured..."

"WHAT!?" Klaus got his wand and started questioning the young man. "What happened to Elias?"

"Elias was in a bad mood and... he was..." Yukiya coughed a few times. "Punching a nearby tree... To calm himself down... The tree came to life and... Grabbed him by his neck... He is in the infirmary now, he's not conscious!"

Klaus dashed towards the infirmary, leaving the boy behind. 

"""""

There Elias was.

Laying down on the bed, covered in blood and dirt.

He was awake now, though he seemed to be in a dazed state, as he couldn't focus on anything. His eyes were like two empty orbs. Klaus kneeled down beside the bed and looked at his brother with concern and pain in his own eyes.

"...Elias, hey..." He looked around the room and signalled the nurse and a couple students to leave. They did as they were told.

"...Can you hear me?"

Elias turned his eyes slowly towards his brother and looked at him. Well, they looked like they were just gazing around and looking into the plain wall behind Klaus instead of him, but this was something. At least Elias was responding.

"Thank god..." Klaus looked sad. He patted Elias' head and put his wand into his pocket. "Did they even casted any healing spells on you?" Elias nodded slightly. 

Klaus sighed and cast one of the most powerful, yet gentle healing spells he knew. His brother deserved it after all. But it didn't worked. 

"...Why isn't it working?" 

Klaus tried to cast it for a couple more times but when Elias stsrted to moan because of the discomfort he was feeling, he stopped. It was too much for Elias to handle after all. 

"Your hair is all messed up." Klaus continued to pat Elias' head with a gentle gaze. Poor boy, he was so hurt. His soul was crushed, and his body was collapsing. A slight, golden beard was forming on Elias' face, he hadn't shaved for weeks. His eyes had purple bags under them. His cheeks were a little sticky and shiny, probably from the tears he shed. His hands were cold and his legs gave up on any type of movement whatsoever.

His brother looked pathetic.

It was Klaus' fault for not realizing it sooner. 

"I am so sorry, Elias. I... failed you. Sorry for not realizing everything sooner." Klaus held his brother's hand and whispered and blowed to it, he was trying to warm them up. "Your hands are still kind of small compared to mine. I wonder if that's a weird thing for me to notice, since I am your 23 year-old, brother."

"You are a wonderful kid, Elias. Please don't give up." Klaus was begging to God, Jehovah, Allah, or whatever god that was up there. He wanted his brother to be happy. His actions wouldn't mean anything if his brother was no longer.... around....

He had tears on the corner of his eyes now. He loved his baby brother so much, and when he thought about all of the pain his brother went through, he couldn't believed how his brother held his emotions hidden inside of the depths of his heart for all these years. 

He came to his senses when Elias's other yand quietly reached to hid face and wiped his tears. Klaus looked up at his brother in shock, and when he saw his weak, smiling face, he immedietly got up and cleared his throat. 

"Ahem, um, ahem. Glad to see that you are safe, Elias."

"The proffesor... already casted a spell on me... Mr. Smart Prefect Klaus..."

'He's making fun of me in this state? This kid is really something else...' Klaus smiled to himself, clearly irritated and emberassed.

"Oh really? That's nice to hear." Klaus kept his straight face and sat down beside him again. "Are you going to tell me what happened now?"

"...No." Elias turned his back to Klaus with an offended face.

"Elias." Klaus grabbed his sick brother by the shoulder and turned him around rather harshly. Elias hissed in pain and looked at Klaus. He was angry. 

"You do realize that I hate being rejected, yes?" Klaus' demonic voice and posture filled the room. "I'm not going to be easy on you just because you are injured."

"Yeah, injured rather badly..." Elias rolled his eyes and rose up in the bed while hissing, slowly. Then, he leaned back on the bed and adjusted the collar part of his uniform. 

"I was angry... So i started to punch a random tree on my way to calm myself down but turns out I was punching a special breed of tree that can sense pain and uses it's branches to elliminate the attacker as a defense mechanism. The last thing I remember is the tree just squeezing my throat with it's branches and then feeling a really sharp pain on my stomach. Turns out the freaking thing stabbed me."

"Why were you angry?" Klaus shifted a little.

Elias said nothing and attempted to turn his back again, however a Klaus' held him by it earlobe and prevented him from moving. He knew Elias hated it whenever someone whispered in his ears or touched them. "Stop this, I am not an 8 year old..."

"Well you act like one." 

"How?"

"I saw you having a mental breakdown last Tuesday because your coffee didn't have enough cream and sugar inside it. Only an 8 year-old does that."

"HOW DID YOU EVEN SEE THAT!?"

"I was in the dining hall with you, Elias."

"I don't... remember that."

"One of the effects of depression and anxiety is memory loss after all." 

"My god, shut up. I'm not depressed."

"Sure, sure..." Klaus let go of Elias' ear and sat on the chair. "I'll be here until you get better."

"You don't have to... Aren't you busy?"

"Not when my baby brother is sick." Klaus smirked.

"I am not a- ..." Elias sighed and turned around, he was embarrassed to look at his brother in the eye. "...Thank you, you..." Elias hid himself under the sheets. "...are the only person that truly cares about me y'know..."

"If you weren't this blind, you would realize you are wrong on so many levels." Klaus took out his thermos and drank some tea from it, while making sure that his brother was safe and sound. He wasn't in any type of discomfort as he was sleeping. 'I wish you talk to me about how you feel, Elias. I guess I'll have to investigate more if I want to help you. What good is a Goldstein if he can't even protect and help his loved ones?'

Meanwhile, Liz was watching the whole thing from the small gap between the door and the door sill. She came ro the infirmary to change the bandages on her left hand but stopped herself from coming in and disturbing the two brothers. She thought, 'Klaus is a wonderful big brother, I wish I had s sibling like him...' She smiled warmly and took a picture of them, then quickly left. 

The picture showed Elias, sleeping with a relaxed expression on his face with his brother sitting right beside him, smiling softly at his brother with his legs crossed.

\---

That afternoon, Elias dreamt about a meeting he had with his buddy. She explained her past and what kind of life she had up until now, and Elias wanted to meet with the child Liz a countless of times to help her feel better and have a better future. He dreamt about himself meeting with the girl, talking with her, explaining his biggest worries to her.  
Oh how nice would it be if it was real... 

\---

It was a pretty calm day in Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy.

The youngest son of a prestigious fanily filled with talented and beautiful people, Elias Goldstein was walking the courtyard with a few books on his hands. He was a bookworm, as some people liked to call him and never socialized with anyone but his Buddy and his roommate. Rumor has it that he has an inferiority complex and likes being slapped by his brother-

"Elias, THE BALL!" Liz yelled at Elias in panick. 

Elias looked at the direction of the voice and his face twisted in shock and fear. "WAS ZUR HÖLLE-!?"*  
He dropped his books, then slammed the ball with his right hand out of reflex.

The impact made a really loud slapping voice and the ball went to the other side of the courtyard, broke a couple objects like tree branches and cracked a window, then finally stopped.

"....MY HAAAAAAAAAAAND!!!!" Elias screamed, held his hand and crouched down. It really hurt his hand, he literally slapped a ball that was coming at him in full speed with all of his strenght. Even Luca, who purposefully threw the ball at Elias for shits and giggles, was suprised and shocked how physically strong Elias was.

"...GOD DAMN!" Luca began laughing like crazy. "YOU ALMOST KNOCKED THAT TREE DOWN WITH THAT BALL ELIAS! I never knew you were this strong! Better keep that in mind the next time I'll annoy you~"

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT LUCA! Aaaaah, my haaand..." Elias tried to move his hand but made a noise like a puppy in pain. "If it's broken, I'm going to strangle you with one hand..."

"Alright, alright, Prince Elias, I am leaving now..."

"GET OUT!"

"Elias, I'm so sorry, really. I shouldn't have let Luca serve from that distance... It'll get better in a few minutes. Here, take this." Liz gave a water bottle filled with cold water to Elias. "Put this on your hand. It'll help." Elias looked up at Liz and didn't recognized her for a few minutes. 

Liz wore a tight, comfortable looking pair of shorts underneath her skirt that it ended just above her knees. She wore a pair of sports shoes, tied her hair in a pony tail and tied her jacket to her waist. She'd undone a few buttons and got rid of her ribbon too, those probay made her feel uncomfortable in this hot weather. She rolled up her sleeves, exposing her muscular yet thin arms. Elias only noticed then that her legs looked pretty strong yet soft too. 

She was beautiful.

Elias turned his head away in a bashful state and thanked her in an inaudible voice.

"Do you need help with those books?" Liz looked at the books and the notes on the ground.

"No, I'll handle them somehow. I don't want to trouble you. Just... Go over to your friends and have a good time." 

By the time he finished talking, Liz had already gathered up all the papers and books. "Where do I put these?"

"Wh- Hey no, I'll take them to the headmaster's office myself."

"Your hand is injured Elias."

"Doesn't matter."

"Just get up, we'll go there together." Liz smiled softly. Elias looked at her from where the crouched down and got up. "If it's no problem for you, then I guess you can carry them..." 

Liz jumped happily and started walking, while talking about god knows what. From the boy named Tony from the next class to how scary Proffesor Schuyler is, to Amelia's new girlfriend Scarlet to a cat she saw in her balcony today... Ordinary things. 

Elias was never the type to understand small talk, nor he had any conversaional skills. However, it was refreshing to listen to her. To talk about unimportant, regular aspects of life. 

However, his smiling face turned into an angry, unpleased one when he rememered the faces of the priests in his chruch all of a sudden. Those guys... Were a bunch of assholes. That's for sure. He shook his head and then conginued to talk with Liz. He wanted to be happy for once.

"Since when did you started playing volleyball?" 

"Ever since I was a little kid. It was one of the few fun things we could do as girls. Besides from weddings and engagement parties, and festivals of course..."

"What do you mean?"

"I grew up in an environment where the mayor wanted to marry me with his only son when I was 14. They said I looked way older than my age and I was ready to have kids and all kinds of bad stuff like that. Marrige and children... They were really important. I had many friends, however all of them are married when they were 15 or 16. Those girls pitied me for not finding a husband but... I am happy like this. I don't ever want to graduate from here sometimes... I like staying here with you, Prefect Klaus, Randy... Luca and Yukiya..."

Elias didn't know what to say. 

He knew underage marriges were still happening. He couldn't do anything about it though. He was... glad that Liz wasn't forced to marry with a man that was 10 years older than her. He understood why he didn't want to go back to her hometown. The academy was her safe place. 

"...I'm glad you are okay." was all he could say. Nothing more.

"But even after all of this, I loved my hometown you know... People were nice and sweet, they took care of me after my parents' death and they thought the only way I could live comfortably was to marry with the mayor's only son. That way I could have a home, money and didn't have to worry about my future since I would be the next mayor's wife. They tried to do it because of me. I wouldn't want that though.. Oh, we are already here." Liz stopped and looked over to the huge door to headmaster's office. Elias put the cold water bottle away and knocked on the door with his uninjured hand. 

Liz... She was a strange girl. But she was strong. 

Elias wanted to be like her someday. 

"""""

"Elias is no longer a son of mine, Claudia. You already know this."

...

Father...?

"He is a lost couse. He will never be a true Goldstein in this rate."

Why...?

I tried to please you, Father...

"Why did you let this god damn child be born...?"

Was... was that not enough for you, Father?

My... I can't breathe...

"Klaus, I told you stop talking about that boy! He is a disgrace, a traitor!"

No... I am not...

Klaus... What's happening? I'm...

"If you want to have something to eat and a warm bed you can sleep in, you will as I say, you should be grateful that I even let you stay in here!"

Ich fühle mich, als vürde meine seele vor meinem körper verotten... Klaus... 

"You cursed, hopeless child!"

Help me..

Where are you, Klaus...?

"It would have been better if you just died on a road side, you god damn child!"

K...

"KLAUS!!"

The voice Elias' head violently screamed and he forcefully opened his eyes to escape from that hellish yard. The voice quieted down when he saw his dear big brother asleep next to his bed. However, when he felt the bed shaking slightly, he opened his eyes and looked around, as if he was awake the whole time. 

"Had a good sleep?"

"Kind of..."

"..." Klaus stared at him blankly. "Alright. Can you walk? I'm going to walk you to your dorm."

"I can, don't worry about me." Elias adjusted his uniform and hair. Then touched his chin. "I better shave when I get home... Well, I guess this look works for me too. I kinda look like my father."

"Don't put cursed images in my head. That beard is going to be gone tomorrow." Klaus rolled his eyes. They both left the room after Elias washed his face.

The evening sun painted everywhere in a gentle shade of orange and yellow. Everywhere was dull, yet shiny and looked different in Elias' eyes. He didn't know the reason, but he felt like some chains were dragging him down even more. Destination unknown... 

Two Goldsteins.  
Each of them are beautiful, yet both of them are surrounded by problems everday. 

"Can you still speak German?" Klaus asked all of a sudden.

"Ich bin undendlich müde, Klaus. I don't think I can think about talking in German right now."

'Smartass....' Klaus thought and lightly bumped Elias on the head. "Grandfather hated speaking English, so he tried to teach you German all the time. I guess you remember some things..."

"I guess. Yukiya told me about his racist grandparents once. Apparently no one tries to talk when they are eating together. Since the whole conversation eventually turns into a political debate."

"Makes me wonder how you survived during your rebellious teenager phase and didn't get killed by my grandfather."

"I wasn't that bad."

"You were that bad."

"No, I wasn't."

"Yes, you were."

"Do you really wanna go on a debate about this?"

"It would be nice to talk with someone stupid to feel smart for once now, don't you think?"

There was a small silence for a few minutes between them. But after that, they both started laughing and giggling like little kids.

"You are laughing like when my dad tried to step on your foot with his wooden cane as a game!" Klaus tried to control himseld but his attemps were failing, as he giggled while he was talking.

"Well, at least I wasn't the one that got tickled by my aunt whenever we had a family reunion!" Elias was clutching his stomach as his face got redder and redder.

"The priest in our local church dropped you in the water when he was baptising you and almost drowned you, what are you talking about?" Klaus was loudly laughing now. He remembered how panicked his father was.

"Well you tried to learn 'We Wish You A Marry Christmas' on piano but cried and destroyed the whole thing when you messed up 3 times in a row, my mom had to pay for that piano!" Elias was no different.

"I am just an ambitious person, unlike you."

"Yeah, an unnecessarily ambitious 24 year-old man."

"Well at least I'm not still a grumpy and bratty boy."

"I see honey dripping down from your tongue today, Klaus. I'm never talking to you again."

"You had the misfortune of knowing me Elias, so I still win." 

It's been a while since they laughed and yelled this freely with each other. 

It was a nice evening. Elias couldn't stop smiling that night and freaked everyone out though.

"""""

A few weeks later, at a calm afternoon, a magic note came to Elias' classroom and flopped down next to him. 

'A magic note at this hour? I wonder who is it from...' Elias thought and unfolded the paper, then read it quietly. It was from Klaus an he purposefully wrote the whole note in German.

"Triff mich nach der sperrstunde im botanischen garten, ich muss mit der sprechen. Den wohnheimsvater habe ich schon informiert. Also musst du das dich nicht mehr machen. Komm nicht zu spät!"

Apperantly Klaus wanted to meet with him after curfew at the botanical garden. And ended the letter with a "Don't be late!". Elias sighed, this was his brother after all. 

Then Liz came in and sat next to Elias, who still had the note inside of his hands. 

"Good morning Elias. Is your hand any better?" 

"It's ironic of you to say this when your hand is broken, but thank you for your concern. It's better now." 

Liz responded with a small "Alright" and took out her notebook. "Sorry for messing up last week, I know it brought your avarage to an A-..."

"It's not that bad, I already have plans for myself that doesn't require any academic performances."

"Really? Can you tell me?" Liz was excited and intrested now.

"I want to marry and have a family on my own at the coutry side. Then I'll open up an animal clinic there and live a peaceful life. I hate the city...." 

Liz smiled warmly when he imagined the picture in her head. "Funny... That's my dream too. Maybe we'll open a clinic together! What do you think about that?"

"The two of us wouldn't be so bad I guess..." Elias smiled to himself.

"Aww! Really?" Liz's chest was pounding with happiness now.

However, she had to keep herself from hugging Elias because Proffesor Schuyler walked in and closed the classroom door in quick and swift movements. "Open up page 68 and read the materials inside of it. We will be having a quiz today." 

The whole classroom groaned bur opened up their textbooks anyway. 

\-- 

"What are you smiling for?"

Elias was sitting on his bed, reading a book and examining the changes in the characters as Luca and Yukiya entered the room.

"Welcome back Yukiya... Why is he here today?"

"He just followed me. I don't want to get involved with him." Yukiya laid down on his bed after he took of his boots and didn't say anything else.

"Jeez, you guys are so welcoming that it's making my heart pound!" Luca said in the most sarcastic tone possible. "I came here to inform you on something, Elias."

"You would nener give me information unless it benefits you too, Luca. But whatever. Don't cause any trouble in here." Having no intention of starting a conversation with Luca, he looked at the book in his hand with cold, emotionless eyes again.

"How is that girlfriend of yours doing?"

"GIRLFRIEND!?" Elias looked at Luca in horror and quickly closed his mouth when he noticed that Yukiya's negativr attention was on him. A red blush was forming on his cheeks when Elias imagined her as his girlfriend. "S... Shut up! She is not my girlfriend and I don't know how she is doing... She probably overslept as always..." Luca's eyes had a michevious glint in them. "I saw her giggling and talking about marrige with your brother this morning."

"She talked about WHAT with my WHAT!?" Elias again, apologized and turned back at Luca. His whole attention was on him now. "Give me the details this instant."

"They then got inside of his office, then Liz started giggling ang laughing even more. She even held your brother's hand! I don't know what happened after that..." Luca raised his arms at two sides with a coy grin and winked. "Did you really let your hot and kind buddy get under Klaus? Really? If I were you, she would be mine by now..."

"I'm going to punch you between the legs when I get back! Just so you wait, you STUPID AS... STUPID IDIOT!" Elias barely kept himself from cursing and went straight to his brother's office to see what they were up to. He knew he had no business with his brother's relationship but him having his buddy as his partner was just AWKWARD! He didn't want that!

He knocked the door furiously and then opened it, but the door didn't budged. Elias began to listen if there was any sort of noise coming from inside. There... was nothing. He tried to knock and open the door again and called out for his brother, but no one was answering. However, when he saw his Brother coming down from the hallway in an angry state, his courage and anger quickly disappeared and he out his tail between his legs, waiting for his brother to arrive.

"...Hi, Klaus."

"Where were you? The curfew was 15 minutes ago and I've been waiting at the botanical garden. You were nowhere to be found." Klaus stood tall and crossed his arms. 

"I had something urgent..."

"In front of my office? At this hour?"

"...Yes?"

"Stop lying." Klaus shook his head and held the bridge of his nose. "Yukiya told me that you were in your room but then decided to go out in a hurry because of something unrelated to our meeting. Even your buddy is more punctual than you..."

"Is she in her room right now?"

"She went to the dorms with me, where else could she be?"

"Why was she even with you?"

"Stop trying to change the subject." Klaus got defensive. 

"Just answer my question. Tell me why you were with her."

Klaus was clearly hiding something, but he covered it so well that even Elias was suprised as to how he knew that his brother was lying. "I am the Prefect, Elias. It's my responsibility to make sure thst students are alright. Besides, I had some private business with her, which has nothing to do with you."

Elias abruptly held his brother by the collar and slammed him to the door next to them. "I am about to snap, Klaus. Now tell me, why are YOU spending so much time with her while I AM her buddy, Klaus!? Is there something between you that I am now aware of, Klaus!?" 

Klaus was stunned. Never in his life has he ever seen his brother dare to raise his hands agganist him. He couldn't even react, just stared at his brother with wide, ridiculing eyes. He put his hands on his brother's shoulders and tried to keep him as far from him as possible. He could see something very dangerous in Elias' eyes though. 

Jealousy. 

Jealousy makes a man lose all of his control. 

"Elias, let me go." Klaus tried to genly shove his brother aside. "Look, I am nor involved with her romantically. Calm down."

"Why were you talking about marrige then!?"

"Jesus Christ Elias, she was talking about the marrige traditions in her town! Like writing a single young woman's name under the bride's right shoe for increasing her chances of finding a husband!" 

"Why the hell did she hold your hand and giggled like you were lovers!?"

"She noticed the ring on my hand, my Father gave it to me as a birthday present!" Klaus raised his hand and showed the ring on his finger. 

Elias huffed in anger an let his brother go. "...I'm sorry I guess..."

Klaus fixed his uniform and sighed. "No problem. Never knew you were the type to get jealous over the smallest of things..."

"I was not jealous."

"You were. You grabbed me, your brother who can break your small neck at any moment if he wants to, and then slammed me to my own office door." 

"I... Whatever. What did you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Let's take a walk, I'll explain it on the way."

\---


End file.
